The story is absorbing and exquisitely written. A memorable classic that is a must for any book club or readers who enjoy well written historical fiction novels.

The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons and A House Divided. It won the Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic.

The novel is set in a timeless China and provides no exact dates although the author does provide subtle hints that the novel that it is just before the revolution. This is the story of Wang Lung a poor farmer in a small village who in the opening chapters of the book marries O-lan. They have four children together, three boys and one girl. With hard work and determination Wang Lung and to O-lan he build a life for their family but not without struggles and hardship.

This is my second reading of this classic and when this came up as an online group read I really looked forward to re-visiting this story because when I read a book like this with a reading group I tend to immerse myself more in the story and get a better understanding of the novel from the discussion after reading.

I think the characters are beautifully imagined and the story flows from beginning to end.
A novel that educates the reader about China, the Chinese people and their traditions and customs.
This is a novel that can be read and re-read and still the reader will never tire of its message and characters.

A great discussion novel and a book sits proudly on my real life book shelf.

How must you live your life?


This is a novel with a plot replete with startling developments and a female character—the farmer’s wife O-lan—who stood out heroically even though she had spoken maybe less than a dozen words in the entire novel.

One should live life treating what is unsaid as just as important as what has been said.

This book is a hard one to rate. I found the book difficult to read emotionally, but knew all the while that it was brilliant.

It was sad to see how Wang Lung's obsession with land ruined his potential for happiness. And it seemed that with more money came more difficult problems.

The cycle of the rich House of Hwang turning into the farmer's house-with all its disgusting rich-people habits--was the most brilliant part of all. And it began with him buying that bit of land even before all the real problems began. I guess I should have realized this was a problem for him when he chose to use his meagre earnings to buy more land than save to feed his little family.

I really despised Wang Lung, while I loved O-lan. How could he not have loved her for what she had given to him, so humbly and silently? Couldn't he find her beauty despite her physical appearance? After O-lan died, I seriously wanted Wang Lung to suffer. I was hoping his house would be robbed like the rich houses that were pillaged by robbers "when the rich get too rich."

I found it ironic, however, at the end when Wang Lung's biggest comforts came in the form of daughters (those daughters that were so useless they called them "slaves" and merely shrugged when they were born)--with his "little fool" as he called her and Peach Blossom, who was like a daughter to him. While his sons caused him nothing but trouble.

There is so much to mention here, I feel like I should have taken notes. But I feel that this is definitely a book worth reading, although it was hard. But the lesson here was learned: lusting after money/land will only bring hardship.

I noticed right away when I began the book that Pearl S. Buck's writing style was special. The language is simple and clear, but at the same time emotive. There isn't a wasted word. There is a quietness in the lines that fills you with emotion. You watch a traditional, hard-working family, one very much tied to the soil, struggling to make something of themselves. The historical details are diffuse; I would guess that the story is set in the first decades of the 1900s. The book was published in 1931 and the time period covered probably ends in the thirties, when the central character Wang Lung is in his 70s. The book is in fact the first of a trilogy. The author, Pearl S. Buck, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.

So what is the story about? A young Chinese couple, Wang Lung and O-lan, begin with nothing. The marriage was arranged and they knew nothing of each other. This book follows their lives and their children. Grandchildren are born but their lives are for the next books of the trilogy. For me, the story reads as an allegorical tale about the ups and downs of life. It is about how we change as we pass from childhood to adulthood and finally old age. It is also about the value of land. It cannot be stolen, as gold or silver or gems can be stolen. It gives sustenance, and it gives pleasure. Working the land gives a purpose to life and immense satisfaction.

The traditions and customs of China are beautifully drawn - clothing and food, marriages and birth and death, yearly celebrations, sexual discrimination. Customs are drawn so you see how the Chinese people feel about their own traditions. How do they see concubines and foot-binding and beauty. And ugliness. Book learning and war and famine. The role and status of the elderly, the position of the eldest son, the daughters, the retarded. What was it like to grow up in China in the early 1900s as one of the multitude? And what is success? The reader recognizes that which is common to all people and that which is specific to life in China.

When I began listening I wasn't thrilled with the narration by George Guidall, but it grew on me. I ended up really liking it. The lines are read slowly and movingly. Nice long pauses. Time to ponder. Time to shed a tear before the story continues.

I came to care deeply for Wang Lung and O-lan, but not for any of the other characters. This is why I hesitate to continue with the trilogy. This was a good story, movingly told, by an author that has a unique way of saying things simply, quietly and powerfully. The story itself isn't exceptional, but how it is told is.

"Parecia-lhe, enquanto caminhava à luz crua do Sol, pela rua poeirenta, que não havia homem no mundo tão feliz como ele.
Esta ideia inspirou-lhe primeiro alegria, mas depois um movimento de temor. Não é bom ser muito afortunado nesta vida. O ar e a terra estão cheios de espíritos malignos que não toleram a felicidade dos mortais, especialmente dos que são pobres."

Farta de ler o oriente a grande distância, achei que seria boa ideia apostar numa visão mais próxima (não necessariamente endémica, mas sobretudo, ideal e fisicamente próxima) da terra, da cultura e das gentes da China por oposição ao retrato que um estranho faz em terra alheia. Pearl S. Buck é uma boa aposta para fazer essa transição e Terra Bendita uma boa obra para ficar a conhecer um velho mundo, uma população milenar e hábitos que nos são, sobretudo hoje, perfeitamente estranhos, mas que moldaram uma nação que a autora apenas se enganou em cunhar de imutável (embora, a sua essência talvez seja qualquer coisa verdadeiramente eterna).

"Os chineses não morrem por uma ideia.(...)
Apegados ao seu velho senso comum, os chineses nem sequer se apressam a livrar-se dos tiranos. Acreditam que o Céu e a Natureza desempenharão tal tarefa. E como sabem eles que o Céu ordenou a queda da tirania? Através do simples facto de o preço do arroz ir além do que o homem comum pode pagar. Um bom administrador conserva baixo o preço do arroz. Quando já não tem capacidade para o manter, é tempo de abandonar a cargo.
A democracia chinesa é tem sido sempre simbolizada pela família. O conceito chinês sobre as relações do povo com o chefe do governo e seus conselheiros é o mesmo que regula as relações existentes no seio da familia, entre o pai, o irmão mais velho e os outros membros. A democracia chinesa, quando tiver adquirido a sua forma final, não repousará sobre a máquina politica mas sobre os individuos paternalmente democratas, e o chefe será
um homem paternal, permanecendo nas suas funções enquanto souber manter o respeito e a confiança do povo, pela conservação do baixo preço do arroz.
(Prefácio)

Assim, assente em valores conservadores e patriarcais, na estratificação social e familiar, no temor religioso, na ignorância das massas, permitindo e incentivando o concubinato, a exploração e desumanização das mulheres cresceu uma China que hoje conhecemos como capitalista, brutalmente industrial, bélica e, no entanto, capaz de expressar uma profunda união enquanto comunidade e um sentido de dever como nenhuma outra. Esse sentimento de unidade provém precisamente destes velhos tempos como os vividos por Wang Lung e O-lan em Terra Bendita, tempos nos quais se espera que o casal, como a terra, seja fértil e deixe semente para o futuro. Aqui, onde não há lugar para o "eu", cada um deve cuidar de assegurar o futuro comum sem olhar aos sacrifícios pessoais que isso mesmo implica, entregues aos deuses e deles aceitando os desígnios, nascendo, vivendo e morrendo sem fazer ondas, sem deixar marca maior do que a de fazer perdurar a utilidade dos seus corpos por um bem maior.
Pelo menos assim é até que esse mundo, lento e previsível, abalado pelo futuro inevitável, veja nascer novas gentes, com novas ambições e um sentido de dever para consigo mesmos.

"Apaixonaste-te por tua mulher e apaixonaste-te excessivamente, pois um homem não deve preocupar-se tanto com a mulher que seus pais lhe deram. Não é decente que um homem ame sua esposa com um amor louco e absorvente, como se fosse uma meretriz."

Mas Buck traz-nos tudo isso embrulhado numa fabulação com reminiscências de As Mil e Uma Noites, em que o/a narrador/a, qual Xerazade, mantém o leitor em suspenso entre capítulos com um sabor antigo como a terra que lhes dá mote, numa narrativa desligada do eurocentrismo e do individualismo nossos contemporâneos, e que nos mostra (muito embora Buck seja uma crítica silenciosa de muitos costumes) que a vida é possível de viver, e já foi outrora vivida (para melhor ou pior), em comunidade e em comunhão com a natureza.

رغم الطول النسبي للرواية، لكني لم أستطع أن أتركها إلا بعد الأنتهاء منها
رائعة و تستحق الخمس نجوم

***Peter*** wrote such a 'beautiful' review!!!!!!!

I remember crying when I read this book. Its a book I could read again!

Hm??? And why??? am I not reading more of 'great books I 'missed'? Each time I do --I'm in 'aw' (almost shocked that its sooooooo good TODAY).

Its wonderful to see such a high rating review on an older book (which was just read by *Peter*).

I had that same experience with "East of Eden" and "Crossing to Safety" ---(both older books which felt 'timeless') ---both written sooooooooooooo beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for Peter's review!!!!!

There is a gush of red, marvelous, and mysterious blood running through my veins. I am part Chinese. A race that has given me these small eyes and this yellowish complexion. A race that I have associated with frugality, hard work, mass production, internet restrictions, and Jackie Chan. China, I've only been there once as a tourist when I was a bit younger. And as much as I'd like to think that I am familiar with the Chinese culture, I have to admit that my knowledge about that is limited and my views about them a bit stereotypical. My Grandma, the real Chinese in the family, still brings Moon Cakes during the Chinese New Year and we do maintain fireworks when celebrating. We also drink herbal tea at home and have this uncanny favoritism for Chinese restaurants during family get-togethers. Aside from that, you could say that I'm really much more familiar with Filipino and Western cultures. So when I picked up this book, I didn't know what to expect. My only assurances were that it won the Pulitzer Prize and the author is a Nobel Prize winner. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is a beautiful and sweeping story of farmer Wang Lu and his wife O-lan. The Land, the man, and their bond. This beautiful tale left me thirsty and craving for knowledge about this race that resides within me yet has not fully manifested itself. This may sound fancy but I have to say what I feel. This book made me fall in love with China, the Chinese culture, my Chinese roots.

“And roots, if they are to bear fruits, must be kept well in the soil of the land.”

The beauty of this sweeping tale can be understood by hearing its voice, its message. It whispers an earnest plea of the oldest kind, it whispers "Remember the land." The land which has provided for your father, your father's father, and countless generations before him. In this age of technology, internet, GMOs and fast foods, we forget the land. We ignore the Good Earth that has sustained the lives of everyone before us, and lives of this generation.

"If you sell the land it is the end.

And his two sons held him, one on either side, each holding his arm, and he held in his hand the warm loose earth. And they soothed him and they said over and over, the elder son and the second son,

Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.

But over the old man's head they looked at each other and smiled."

This book, written in the year 1931, exposes a problem that has continually been growing worse as each generation progresses. Each son telling his father "the land will not be sold" but inwardly smiling at this statement he knows to be untrue. Each son, each daughter, each generation, saying we will save this good earth. But for every tree he plants, he cuts down two more. For every bottle she recycles, she throws out two more. For every plot turned into a garden, there are two plots turned into garbage dumps. Each man, woman, son, daughter thinking about their self, their success apart from the land. They forget that their success lies with the land. They forget the Earth that has been good to them.

“Wang Lung sat smoking, thinking of the silver as it had lain upon the table. It had come out of the earth, this silver, out of the earth that he ploughed and turned and spent himself upon. He took his life from the earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver."

This book touches a lot of other social issues like Feminism, Slavery, Concubinage, Civil Wars, etc. I will not discuss much of these issues and will only say in passing that a different culture enabled them to see nothing wrong with things we in modern times would consider abhorrent and terrifying. Things like selling daughters, feet-binding, polygamy aren't limited to China as these practices can also be found in other Asian countries. But I marvel at how Mrs. Buck was able to make it feel natural despite all these cultural differences. She effected a normalcy on these weird practices that I didn't once think that I was unfamiliar with them. This speaks of her grace and her skill as a writer. She writes with a natural grace and an earnest plea. I am engrossed by her writing, her message, her book.

The Good Earth is a timeless, moving story that depicts the sweeping changes that have occurred not only in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century, but also of everyone who has walked a part of this good earth. She traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions, its rewards. Her beloved and brilliant novel is a universal tale of the destiny of mankind.

"Out of the Land we came and into it we must go."

الأرض الطيبة...تلك الرواية التى كانت سببا من الأسباب الرئيسية لحصول الكاتبة على جائزة نوبل واحتلت صدارة المبيعات فى أمريكا عام 1931 و1932
الكاتبة وصفت بدقة المجتمع الصينى كمجتمع مثل كل المجتمعات له عاداته وتقاليده التى نقلتها بيرل باك من قلب ريف الصين الفقير بداية بالفلاح (وانغ وانغ) الذى ترى ��لامحه فى أول مشاهد الرواية مع والده العجوز ورغبته فى الزواج من أحد خادمات البيت الكبير لتساعده فى أعمال المنزل والأرض ويبدأ بتكوين أسرة مع الطيبة ( أولان ) تلك الخادمة الفقيرة الجمال و قليلة الكلام والتي كانت اكثر شخصية تعاطفت معها وأحببتها في الرواية.وشعرت للحظات أنها هي نفسها الأرض الطيبة..
استفزني صمتها وتعجبت لقوة تحملها وصلابتها الشديدة لآخر لحظة في حياتها
حزنت لفقدها اللؤلؤتين!!
بل لفقدها لمكانتها عند زوجها والتي أدركها بعد فوات الأوان
تروى الكاتبة قصة كفاح البطل حيث بدايته من الفقر حتى وصوله إلى كونه أغنى رجل فى القرية حتى عانى من الكساد الاقتصادى الذي صاحب ظروف المناخ السيئة والثورة التى حدثت فى الصين والمجاعات
صراع الإنسان مع البيئة...الجوع...الموت!
نجحت الكاتبة فى توصيل صورة الفلاح الصينى البسيط المرتبط بالأرض حتى بعد أن أصبح قريبا من الموت ولدرجة أنه من الممكن ان يبيع ابنته لتعيش عبدة للأبد ليعود لأرضه..
و لكنه لازال يوصى أولاده بالأرض وهم يبتسمون سرا ويعلمون انهم سيبيعونها حينما يموت.
إنها الصين تلك البلاد البعيدة الموجودة فى أقصى شرق العالم المليئة بالحكايات والأساطير
رواية جميلة... جعلتني أشم رائحة الحقول وأشعر بالجفاف..واخشى الفيضان..وانتظر المطر

Written by Pearl S. Buck, an American citizen who spent most of her childhood and much of her adult life in China, in 1931. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. I've heard much about it, mostly about a moment in the story when a woman gives birth and then goes back to work in the fields the same day, and have wanted to read it for quite some time.

I think it's always intimidating to read a classic. They are usually reserved for English classes or intellectuals and I worry that my understanding won't be up to snuff. Here goes:

The story begins on Wang Lung's wedding day. He is a peasant farmer, in China, who goes to the house of a wealthy farmer to pick up the bride his father has arranged for him to have: a plain, unattractive slave whose feet have never been bound and appear hideous to him. Large feet notwithstanding, he quickly learns to admire his hard-working and frugal wife. With their hard work and savings, Wang climbs up the economic ladder by being able to buy additional land to farm on. It's ALL about the land, in Wang's opinion. Land is forever. Land cannot be taken away.

Sure enough, what I heard about birthing and returning to work in the fields the same day was true. O-Lan, Wang's wife, is this incredibly docile, unassuming woman. She's the kind of woman that made me feel like a slacker for sitting around reading a book. Or taking a few weeks off of going to church after having a baby. I longed for more O-Lan, but that wasn't what this book was about. There were moments when I saw her pain, when I understood that in this culture, no one really loved O-Lan, despite her humility and service. Not her parents, who probably considered having a girl a burden and sold her as a slave when she was very young, not her owners, not her husband, and eventually, not even her own children. Wang appreciated her but all his appreciation did was allow him to feel ashamed when he brought a concubine to the home.

The beauty of the book, to me, was the irony that Buck skillfully weaves throughout the story. The rise and fall of the House of Hwang, where O-Lan was a slave, parallels Wang Lung's own story. It's the whole Nephite Pride Cycle! In fact, Buck's style of writing felt a bit like reading the scriptures. It was written dispassionately, even when writing about the character's passion. I also appreciated the Epic nature of the story. There is something to be learned from the successes and the tragedies.

As much as I liked it, and I liked it very much, I wasn't completely smitten. I read some of the original reviews which led to the Pulitzer Award, and most of them focus on the groundbreaking honest look into China. Apparently, up until that time, China, or the Orient, was poorly understood and most of the stories about it were romanticized and mystifying. Buck wrote about the China she saw, the day to day work and customs, the glory of sons to their families and the disregard to their daughters. While many parts of the story transcends time, parts of it felt obsolete and simple. Kind of like the first of anything. An original...yes. Groundbreaking...definitely. But then other books follow suit and readers have a choice of style and characters. I've read several books before that tell the chilling tale of peasant life in China. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan each detail the beauty, simplicity, horror and hardship of pre and post revolutionary China. Perhaps that exposure kept me from truly loving this story. Or maybe my expectations were too high.

No doubt, some of you who did read this in a class and had the opportunity to dissect it with an instructor, see what I am missing. If so...please share.

Until being convinced otherwise, my opinion is that this is a great book. Definitely a classic. But not one of my favorites.

It's difficult for me to explain how much I hate this book, and even harder to explain why. I don't think it's just because I hated the main character so much, and in this case at least, I don't think it's because of the weirdness that arises from a Westerner writing about a colonized country.

I do know that *part* of my intense dislike for this book comes from how it is viewed by other people (usually non-Chinese). Read the reviews and you'll see one word come up over and over again: "portrait." Says one reviewer, "In addition to lovely, rich writing, the novel provided much-needed Chinese history, class and culture lessons." Am I the only person whose hackles go up when someone refers refers to a novel like a textbook? Of course there is some historical fact in The Good Earth, and in other novels, but I have a serious problem with people conflating (and equating) fiction and history. While there's some truth in the book's portrayal, it perpetuates a lot of stereotypes about the Chinese. What's more, this book has shaped a lot of people's perceptions of China and the Chinese, not necessarily for the better. I know this happens with other cultures--but often to a greater extent with The Good Earth. Do we read Anna Karenina and feel that we now know everything about Russia? Does anyone read Midnight's Children as a straight-up account of Indian history? Yet for some reason, for a lot of people The Good Earth is *it*, the one lesson in Chinese culture and history that they will read in their lives. They end up thinking, "This is how China IS," not "This is a portrayal of how one part of China was at one point in time."

Of course, most of the above complaint about this book has to do with the reactions of the people reading it, not with the book itself. But I think there's something in how the book is pitched, and in the narrative itself, that invites that. As a story of love, partnership, and sacrifice in a marriage and family--this book does well. But it's not THE portrait of China that many readers unfortunately make it out to be.



For more thoughts on this, see my post at the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celeste...

ی قصه ی کهن اما هنوز پر تکرار...
خاک خوب نه تنها روایت زحمت و زمینه، که قصه ی ریشه ها و پیشینه هاست.

این کتاب، داستان چند نسل و دیدگاهشون نسبت به زمین، زندگی، ازدواج و ثروت اندوزی رو در بر میگیره.

لانگ که در زندگی، جز کار سنگین، تنگدستی و سیاهی ندیده، به واسطه ی ازدواج با کنیزی روی زمین پا سفت میکنه و سرش رو به سمت آسمون میگیره... گرچه دنیا همیشه به یک اندازه خوشی و نعمت بهش روا نمیداره اما بعد ورود و همت این کنیز، راه موفقیت و اعتبار برای لانگ هموار میشه.
این ثروت، ایده آل های لانگ رو تغییر میده اما باز هم فقط بازگشت به زمین و لمسش، برای اون حس امنیت و تسلی خاطر رو به همراه میاره.
خاک خوب، روایت تراژیک دیگه ای از زندگی رو هم نشون میده، زنی که همیشه تحقیر شده، باورهاش از ارزشمند بودنش از همون ابتدا لگدمال شده، تاب اوردن و پوست کلفتی بهش تحمیل شده، و عادت کرده فراتر از جسم و روحش بار زندگی رو به دوش بکشه، حتی وقتی با رنج و تلاش، به ثبات مالی میرسه، آسایش و رفاه رو حق خودش نمی دونه، و تا پایان عمر، سهمش از زندگی سکوت، حسرت، نگاه و آرزوی خوشبختی خانواده ش میشه.
اما لانگ، با وجود شرمندگی در مقابل سازگاری و فداکاری های این زن، همیشه با نگاهی از بالا اون رو با زن های رنگ و لعاب دار قهوه خانه ها مقایسه میکنه و در نهایت بخشی از حاصل این تلاش بی چشمداشت رو با دست و دلبازی در مسیر هوس هاش و مخفی کردن اصل خودش هزینه میکنه...

نکته ای که ممکن بود با بهتر پرداختن، کمی سطح کتاب رو برای من تغییر بده رد پای جنگ بود، البته اشاره ای کوچک به اعلامیه هایی که علت فقر رو پولدارها میدونست، تکان کوچکی به داستان داد اما در حواشی زندگی لانگ‌ اهمیتشون گم شد:
"عجب جاهل و نفهمی هستی تو که هنوز موهای سرت را می بافی، و مثل دم آویزان می کنی! وقتی باران نیاید که کسی نمی‌تواند آن را بباراند. اما این به ما چه ربطی دارد؟ اگر پول دار ها آنچه دارند با ما قسمت کنند، باریدن یا نباریدن باران برای کسی تفاوت نمی کرد چون که همه پول و خوراک داشتند."

داستان بدی نداره، روایت ی زندگیه اما این کتاب نکته ای نداره که از بقیه ی کتاب های مشابه متمایزش کنه!